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I have a guest blogger this week – my husband, Cameron! He had some exciting experiences this month, so I asked him to share one with you all. Enjoy!…

A few months ago, while eating at our favorite little stir fry shack in the village across the street, owned by our local friend, I pinched a bit of rice together with my chopsticks. As soon as I bit into the soft, slightly sticky rice, I heard a crunch and felt a crumbling feeling in my mouth. Not good. Sometimes cheap rice still has pebbles in it that has not been sifted out. As I spit out the pieces of whatever it was in my mouth, I realized it was my tooth. Not good, especially since I HATE the dentist and basically need full BEVO style, game-day sedation just to get my teeth cleaned.

When we got home, I looked in the mirror and realized about 1/2 of one of my molars was missing.Naturally, as anyone who hates the dentist can relate with, I pretended it would just go away. That’s not how teeth work apparently.

Fast forward a couple months, it became pretty painful so I figured it was time to do something. We don’t have any decent dentists here in our small city, assuming you would agree with me that the guy who sells shoes in the vegetable market and has a dental set up behind the cash register is not considered “decent.” I checked with some friends about flying to the next biggest city in China which is an hour away by plane, but no one knew of any good dentists there either. Since I really needed a skilled dentist who I could trust to do a root canal, my next cheapest and nearest option was to fly out of the country to Chiang Mai, Thailand.

After a few weeks of searching, I found a cheap ticket down to Chiang Mai, to get it taken care of. As long as I didn’t leave mid-treatment, which I have been known to do in the past, Jennifer agreed to let me make the trip and maybe even let me steal a couple of Xanax, which she was prescribed for flight anxiety.

Long story short, it all went surprisingly well. I had 4 appointments over two days. I may have taken a bit too much Xanax for the root canal though. The appointment was at 5pm. I remember feeling wonderful afterwards. I even remember eating some sushi and walking back to the little AirBnB, I had rented. In the morning, however, I woke up surrounded by a roomful of Fruit Mentos wrappers. I neither remember buying them nor eating them, and if I called or texted you that night, please don’t hold me responsible for what I said (kidding). The good news is, now I’m back home with a brand new tooth.

The day before returning home from Thailand, after my last appointment, in order to prove that “I’ve still got it,” I decided to go on a 7 mile hike, which someone online described as “like climbing on a muddy stair master towards the top of the climb.” The muddy stair master section ended up taking me a couple of hours to hike. I climbed that thing like my life depended on it. When I arrived at the top, I was wringing wet, covered in mosquito bites, and barfed curry breakfast sausage for ten minutes while unassuming Thai and Chinese tourists who’d taken tuk-tuks up the mountain watched in disgust. That’s fine though because, at 36, I’ve still got it.

Claire and Chloe started attending a new preschool recently. We decided that Claire’s previous school was not a good fit for us after all. Not only were the teachers at her previous school allowing Claire to leave the classroom whenever she wanted, but the television in the classroom was turned on for significant portions of the day. Therefore, we enrolled both girls at a preschool that is run similar to a daycare. The class size is small, only 8-15 kids at a time. The teachers are very interactive and do activities with the kids the whole morning (which means lots of language practice). The kids do not have to sit in desks and there is no TV anywhere. I can also choose when I want to take the kids, so they currently go two mornings a week. That leaves me plenty of time for homeschool and other activities during the rest of the week. It is a perfect opportunity for the kids to be exposed to Chinese but without the pressures of the regular Chinese school system.

Claire’s first ballet performance

Last week we had some friends come over for a salsa canning party! Yes, I know that sounds like a lame party, but when you live in the middle of nowhere in Southern China then sometimes you come up with strange ways of entertainment. I was so excited to learn how to can food because making things like salsa from scratch every time you need it is a real pain. Not only that, but canning food is quite an accomplishment for someone who barely knew how to cook chicken before she left for China!

We had a couple awkward cultural encounters this week. One was in the restroom at a restaurant. I was taking the girls to use the restroom which I always dread because the restrooms all have squatty potties that usually range in varying degrees of disgusting. As usual, I tried to sound calm as I encouraged the kids to finish their business as quickly as possible and reminded them about 50 times to touch absolutely nothing (which can be difficult for kids as they try to squat over a hole). As my kids were using the restroom, I noticed a woman in the stall next to us who was squatting and staring at us with the stall door wide open. Since she didn’t seem to notice the awkwardness of the situation, I leaned my head back and stared straight up at the ceiling not caring if it embarrassed her or not. Claire noticed her too and asked me what she was doing. The lady must have understood what Claire was asking me, because the lady cheerfully responded (in Chinese), “Don’t worry, the poop is coming out soon!”

Another awkward encounter was in the small convenient store at the corner of our neighborhood. I was buying some drinks for Claire’s birthday party and as I rounded the corner of the aisle, I noticed my path was blocked by two people, one older lady and one younger. I knew by the way they were excitedly chattering and looking at me that they wanted to talk, so I begrudgingly paused and said hello. They were passing out fliers for a new preschool that had just opened up which actually interested me since I am always open to good schooling options for the kids. However, during the whole conversation, the younger girl kept squealing and jumping up and down. She was so excited to talk to a foreigner that she looked like she was doing the pee-pee dance during our whole conversation. I was happy to escape the strange interaction, but she wouldn’t let me go before taking a few selfies together. It made me sympathetic to the celebrities in the States who have to deal with that all the time.

We had a couple weeks of sickness in our home. I always have a hard time emotionally, fluctuating between feeling calm and panicked, when the kids get sick because our options for medical care are very limited here. During this most recent round of illness, Chloe’s fever got up to 104.5. It was so hard to not be able to rush her to the doctor and instead rely on the advice of online websites and a fellow foreigner who happens to have a background in nursing. I always pray a lot during those times as my faith is put to the test in a very real way. We do have the option of flying somewhere for medical care, but it is hard to know when an illness warrants that sort of action. Needless to say, I was thankful when everyone was well again.

Claire had her 5th birthday this past week! I gave her a couple options for birthday themes, and thankfully she chose an Octonauts pool party. This was perfect because I didn’t have to squeeze 20+ people into our apartment, and Octonauts is actually really popular in China as well as America which made finding the decorations for the party a lot easier. We had the party at the Ramada hotel pool down the street and it turned out great.

Admittedly, since moving to China, I have become somewhat of a clean freak. I have always been a neat and orderly person, but here in China, I feel an even deeper need to keep our apartment extra clean. Maybe my over-the-top cleaning habits are a form of control since I can’t always control what happens when we live in another culture, or maybe it’s a reaction to the stress I feel when I leave our apartment and interact with an environment in which there are much lower cleanliness standards. Regardless, my tolerance for messes inside our house was stretched this week more than it has been in awhile.

One reason for our messy house was the big black lab we agreed to dogsit for a couple weeks. When a local Chinese friend first proposed the idea of us taking care of the dog while he was away, we excitedly agreed to it. Before Cameron and I moved to China, our first dog was a labrador which we owned for about five years before we had to give him away so that we could move overseas. Naturally, we thought it would be a lot of fun for us to have a lab in the house again. In addition, this lab is perfect – obedient, sweet and lazy.

However, when her owners dropped her off at our house last weekend, they casually mentioned that she was not fixed and that she might start menstruating soon. Not wanting to be rude to our friends, we acted like it was no big deal, but as soon as they left, we went into full panic mode and began googling “dog menstruation” in order to educate ourselves about what was to come. We were disturbed to learn from our internet search that dogs menstruate once every six months for two to four weeks. As luck would have it, the darn dog started her period the very next day. It wasn’t much of a problem at first, just a drop here and there which I would quickly wipe up with a wet wipe. Over just a few days though, the problem became much worse and I was literally following the dog around with a mop all day. Out of desperation, we went to the store and bought adult diapers for the dog to wear, but those quickly fell off. Then, Cameron got on Taobao, our online source for everything here in China, and bought actual dog diapers. During the five days it took for the diapers to arrive at our house, Cameron and I had a mop or wet wipes in our hand at all times (I actually caught Cameron gagging a few times as he wiped up the mess). Thankfully, the dog diaper arrived and that problem is under control now.

The other reason our house was such as mess was because we had new kitchen cabinets and countertops installed. Obviously, I can’t complain too much about this because everyone loves having an updated kitchen, but the process of having it installed is always challenging especially in an apartment. Also, any remodeling that is done in China does not include cleaning either during or after, so that makes the process more stressful. It didn’t help that the dog arrived the same day as the remodeling guys, so my stress was quite high seeing the large amount of dust all over everything as well as the dog’s mess on the floor.

The day our new countertops arrived, the guys brought one of the two large stone countertops in our house and leaned it up against our living room chair. I am not sure how it happened, but all at once I saw the countertop slam to the ground narrowly missing the dog, but landing square on Chloe’s toe. She was screaming bloody murder which made me thing she had broken her toe, but she walked away with just a good sized cut on her toe. The countertop, however, cracked in two pieces. At first, I was convinced we should demand a new countertop, but as I thought about waiting more days for the kitchen to be finished, I quickly caved and let them patch the crack. Now the kitchen is finished and it is a significant improvement from our previous kitchen. It seems somewhat counter-intuitive to update a home that we are temporarily renting, but the remodeling was not that expensive and we anticipate renting this apartment for awhile so we felt like it was worth it to make it feel more like a home.

Now that the kitchen is finished and the dog is leaving in a few days, I finally feel like I can keep the house somewhat clean again. Hopefully I won’t be stretched in this area again anytime soon!

A friend of ours spotted this wild elephant strolling by a nearby village.

Life as of late, has been (should I dare to say) normal. We haven’t gone on any adventurous trips or experienced any crazier-than-usual cultural situations, so I will take this opportunity to describe some of our normal life in Southern China.

Since we returned from the States back in February, we have fallen into a routine that works well for all of us. Most days, I get up around 6:30 to squeeze in a workout before the kids are allowed out of their room at 7:15 (they have been threatened with death if they leave their room before their alarm clock turns green). Recently a new gym has opened up a few minutes away which I have been very tempted to join, but unfortunately they don’t open until 9:00am (similar to most gyms in China) and they don’t have air conditioning! For now, I just stick to running outside or doing workouts in our living room. After the kids get up, Cameron cooks them breakfast while I shower and do a few chores around the house. Our helper arrives around 8:30am each day and starts hand-washing the seemingly endless stack of dishes in the sink.

Side-tracking a bit, we are in the process of doing some upgrades to the kitchen such as replacing the kitchen cabinets, installing a Western-sized oven, and putting in an under-the-counter water filtration system. As we were making plans for the kitchen re-do, a friend of mine sent me a picture of the first dishwasher I have ever seen being sold online in China. I instantly starting dreaming of a life free from hand-washing dishes, but quickly reminded myself that the plumbing and electricity in our kitchen is not set up for a dishwasher. Besides, I could no longer complain about how hard it is to live here if I had a dishwasher!

Daddy and daughter field trip to the Buddhist temple near our house.

After our helper arrives, Cameron heads to the office which is a small apartment we rent that is just a few minutes from the house. The office is only $75 a month and is big enough to meet many of our work needs. It also gives him space to get work done without the distractions of home life. After Cameron leaves, I get the kids started on their chores which include very basic tasks such as getting themselves dressed and brushing their teeth, but for some reason take my kids FOREVER to do. I am pretty sure that 75% of my daily energy is spent getting them to complete their chores.

After chores, I begin homeschool with Claire. We recently took Claire out of Chinese pre-school because we saw no improvement in the issue of Claire being allowed to run around the school whenever she wanted. Last week, I looked at a two other Chinese pre-schools to see if they were viable options for next year, but I was very overwhelmed at the size of the schools and the number of students in the classes. It also was unnerving when every time we walked into a classroom, the kids would scream “Foreigner!” I decided that if I felt overwhelmed by the size and noise level of the classes, then I didn’t want to subject Claire to that. Besides, I have thoroughly enjoyed the homeschooling I have been doing with Claire. It has given me a sense of purpose and structure to my day. I also enjoy utilizing the skills and experience that I gained as a teacher in Texas!

Around 10:30 in the morning, I take the kids outside or to an indoor play place. One of the harder things about living here is that my kids can’t simply open the back door and go play in the yard. It has to be a scheduled event in our day during which I accompany them. It is especially hard in the hotter months when I sweat out any remaining energy I had. After playing outside, we go back to our house where our helper normally has lunch on the table for us. Having our helper cook lunch helps me tremendously because it beats the alternative of peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese sandwiches every day. Since the Western-food options for lunch are too limited, our helper cooks us a couple Chinese dishes of meat, veggies, and rice each day. I love it!

Chloe turns three!

After lunch, our helper cleans up and then heads out the door to her other job. I put Chloe down for a nap, and do about 30 minutes more of homeschool with Claire which usually involves something relaxing like reading or crafts. After we finish, I let Claire watch TV while I try to accomplish as much as humanly possible before Chloe wakes up. After Chloe wakes up, we do baths, read some books, and then I let them play until dinner is ready. On Wednesdays, Claire has started taking a dance class which has been a fun thing to add to our routine.

Cameron usually finishes up work by about 4:00 so he has time to go to the market, get food for dinner, and come home just in time to start dinner. After dinner, Cameron gets the kids ready for bed while I clean up the kitchen. The whole dinner process (making things from scratch, handwashing dishes) takes several hours, so we are both worn out when we collapse on the couch around 8:00. Thankfully, you can get almost any American TV show or movie online in China for free, so we enjoy having our pick of the latest TV series.

That is our normal weekday in a nutshell! It would feel like a normal routine in American if it weren’t for the cultural challenges (like our water being shut off for two days last week) that pop up frequently. However, those challenges do make for some great blogs!

About a month ago now, we drove from our city in Southern China to Laos to get our tourist visas stamped and to show Cameron’s brother and his wife a fascinating part of Asia. Before we left I packed a giant bag of food just in case we got stuck somewhere along the road. With all the construction happening along the road between our city and the Chinese border, it was hard to know whether the drive would take 13 hours or 3 hours. Thankfully, we made it to the border and passed through both customs buildings without incident. Since our Chinese driver was not able to pass through the border, it was up to us to find a driver on the Laos side to take us to our guesthouse in Luang Namtha. We had been told by friends that drivers are always waiting on the Laos side, but it was a little unnerving to cross over into Laos and not have a pre-arranged ride. Thankfully, our friends were correct and we were able to easily find someone who was willing to take us to Luang Namtha.

Luang Namtha is a small town in Laos about one hour from the Chinese border. Not many tourists make it to Luang Namtha because most of them travel to Luang Prabang which is a bigger city closer to Thailand, where most tourists begin their journey. The foreigners in Luang Namtha are usually ones who have come to do multi-day or multi-week guided treks through the jungle. It makes for some interesting people-watching, because I figure anyone who does a trek through the jungles of Laos is extremely hard-core. I was particularly impressed with their packing skills since most of them arrived with a single backpack compared to our massive rolling suitcases and carseats. In Luang Namtha, there is one small guesthouse where most foreigners stay when they come. Although my expectations were very low after seeing the pictures of the guesthouse online, it wasn’t as bad as I expected once we arrived. The room was spacious and the hot water worked (occasionally). Of course, there were still plenty of reminders that we were in a very foreign country particularly when a lady dressed in ethnic clothing approached us selling bracelets and opium.

There wasn’t a lot to do in Laos during a weekend trip with two young kids, but we were able to hire a car to drive us to a few spots around town and in the surrounding mountains. We first visited a Buddhist temple on top of a hillside overlooking the city. Then, the driver took us to a couple different villages to look around. I didn’t get to observe much of the first village because I was too busy chasing after Claire who was chasing after baby chicks. I found it ironic that we had come to observe village life, but after about ten minutes there was a small crowd of villagers watching Claire chase around chickens. Naturally, there wasn’t a modern sewer system in the village, so the dirt roads were all lined with troughs where the waste flowed. I quietly informed Claire there was poop in the troughs hoping to scare her away from them, but to my surprise she walked over to one of the troughs and hollered for all the villagers to come over and look at the poop. As everyone peered over to see what this little crazy blonde girl was talking about, I thanked the Lord that they had no idea what she was talking about.

At the next village they were in the midst of celebrating New Years (aka Songkran) and we watched as the villagers marched along the dirt roads hollering and singing. After a whole day of celebrating, most of them were quite drunk. I wanted to watch from afar, but we were immediately spotted and pulled into the middle of the dancing and celebrating. As soon as I saw Claire getting overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to hold her and take her picture, we quickly made our exit and returned to the car.

The last stop was a waterfall that was slightly underwhelming due to the lack of rainfall at that time, but it was interesting to step in to the jungle for just a second. During just the short walk down the path to the waterfall, I felt so sweaty, itchy, and freaked out by the sight of weird bugs everywhere, that it reminded me that, although I often fantasized about joining those hardcore foreigners on one of their amazing treks, I was in no way suited for that kind of journey. I was happy to return to my guesthouse with air conditioning.

The return drive home was smooth for the most part. As we neared the border of Laos, Claire needed to go to the bathroom really bad. Unfortunately, we were stuck in a long line of eighteen wheelers on both sides of a very narrow, dusty road. The driver kept telling me not to get out of the car, but fearing that Claire was about to wet her pants, I jumped out of the car with Claire and dodged my way through the eighteen wheelers just to find a small patch of grass for her to pee on. To make matters more complicated, our driver had to keep moving down the road with the traffic, so I found myself running along the side of the large trucks searching for our car. I knew we were ok, but it was one of many moments in my life when I had to laugh at the craziness of the situation.

One last interesting encounter was when we met a group of Australians at the border who were all driving small antique cars. They had a very ambitious plan to drive from Thailand, through Laos, China, Russia, the Middle East, and into Europe. I had so many questions I wanted to ask them about their journey, but we were all a little busy with customs paperwork. Again, I secretly wished I could have joined them, but the sound of fussy toddlers brought me back to reality. It is interesting that as adventurous as a weekend in Laos sounds, the sense of awe and excitement seems to be lost in the flurry of diaper-changes, temper-tantrums, and the responsibilities of parenting two young kids.

We have had lots of guests in our house over the past month including this furry little hamster that we offered to take care of while her owners are out of the country. Before the hamster arrived, I had my doubts as to whether a hamster could survive in a house with a two and four-year-old, and it turns out I was right. This poor hamster has been dropped, kicked, crushed, and most likely has multiple internal injuries. Despite my best attempts to make sure the kids are gentle with her, there were several times that I thought she was a goner. A couple nights ago, I walked into the girls’ room late in the evening just to check on them. I heard a scratching sound underneath Claire’s bed and froze not knowing what animal or large bug had found its way into their room. Just as I worked up the courage to look underneath the bed, the hamster came running out and ran right to me as if she was elated that an adult finally found her. I think the girls had secretly opened her cage to pet her and had forgot to shut the door. We still have about five months left of taking care of the hamster, and I will be shocked if she makes it to the end.

Another visitor in our house has been this sweet Burmese baby. Our helper has been bringing her to our house for a couple weeks because she offered to watch the baby while her parents go to Thailand to take care of some business. The baby was adopted by a Chinese family that lives in Burma. Even though she is wary with strangers, she has warmed up to our family and follows me around each morning with a big, goofy grin on her face. I am so grateful such a sweet child ended up with an adoptive family who will love her and provide for her.

Cameron’s brother, Colby, and his wife, Jessica, also traveled to China to see us. The details of their trip came together very last minute, but they managed to come and stay with us for almost three weeks! We all loved them being here, especially the girls who absolutely adored having their aunt and uncle visit. While Colby and Jessica were here, they got the full experience – riding in our tuk-tuk, shopping for food at the market, exploring a tea village, eating all sorts of crazy food, hanging out with our local and foreign friends, exploring the city, etc.

At the market

The Tuk-Tuk

Exploring an ancient, abandoned temple

Eating Dai minority food

Visiting a tea village

They also were here during a very famous holiday that is unique to our region called Water Splashing Festival. There are many activities all over town during the three days of this holiday, but the most notable are the lantern lighting and the actual water splashing day. This was our first year to see the lanterns since our kids are finally old enough to stay out later at night without melting down. That evening we dressed the girls up in traditional Dai clothing and drove in our tuk-tuk to the Mekong River to watch the lanterns. The tuk-tuk is actually perfect in high-traffic situations. We were able to weave our way along of edge of the crowds without getting too far into the center of the activity. We were amazed at the beauty of thousands lights floating above the city. We even tried lighting a few lanterns ourselves. They are a bit tricky, but the secret is to hold the lantern until the hot air from the flame pulls the lantern out of your hands much like a hot air balloon.

The following day was the actual water splashing festival when everyone in the city heads outdoors with water guns, water balloons, hoses, and water buckets. The kids are happy just water splashing in our own neighborhood so I stayed with them while Cameron, Colby, Jessica, and another friend took the tuk-tuk into town where the serious action was. As soon as they crossed the bridge that leads to town, it was a giant water fight with tens of thousands of people. I unfortunately went cheap on the water gun purchases though so Cam says it was a bit of an unfair fight in the beginning. After wisening up and purchasing some upgraded water canons that would make the Bellagio fountains jealous, they created a new strategy… play the dumb foreigner and launch surprise attacks.

In the tuk-tuk, they pulled along side random groups of people, particularly “bros” (as Cameron refers to them), slowed to a stop, and asked, “Excuse me, umm, why is everyone splashing each other?” It’s like going to Time Square in NYC at midnight on New Years and asking why everyone is hanging around. The people immediately came to a stop, and with confused looks on their faces, responded, “It’s Water Splashing Festival, one of the biggest holidays of the year.” To which Cameron responded, “‘What’s Water Splashing Festival???” At which point the innocent victims, responded, “Water Spla…….” At this point, Colby and Jessica would throw open the rear sliding door of the tuk-tuk and instantly soak the poor victims with gallons of water from the upgraded bazookas. Then they’d floor it, screaming “Happy Water Splashing Festival!” and speed away. Luckily most of the victims thought it was pretty hilarious. Of course, Cameron, Colby, and Jessica received plenty of payback for their mischievous fun. There were times during their ride that they struggled to get a breathe between all the water coming in the tuk-tuk windows.

We also took Colby and Jessica on a trip to Laos for a couple of days. Unfortunately, this blog post is already a little long, so I think I will just save that story for the next post!

When I was in college, if I could have had it my way, I would have gone to every class, made straight A’s, gone to bed at 9:00pm, and studied as much as possible. However, I had some friends around who encouraged me to spend my college years less like a 40-year-old and more like a 20-year-old. They pushed me out of my comfort zone and showed me that doing things like staying up to 3:00am was possible and that getting a B did not mean the end of the world. Now that I am getting closer to 40, I can live life the way my 20-year-old self wanted to live, however, once in a while I am reminded of my college years when someone pressures me to do something more adventurous, like swimming in the Mekong River.

The Mekong River is a massive river that runs through the middle of our town and a couple of my friends like to go swimming along the shore for exercise. Recently, they convinced me to bring Claire and come with them. I knew immediately after getting to the river that it was a bad idea. The currents were so strong and the water was freezing, so I refused to go any further than standing on a concrete platform for most of the time. At some point peer pressure got the best of me, and I decided I should at least give it a try. Little did I know that once you entered the water, you had to follow the currents by making a large loop to get back to the place you started. I was hoping to swim out about 10 yards and then turn right around, but as soon as I turned around I realized that no matter how hard I kicked I was going nowhere because of the reverse current that flowed along the shoreline. So, I followed a more experienced friend up the shore bank and stopped after about 50 yards to hang onto a bush. Then my friend explained to me that in order to get back we had to allow the stronger current to push us back down the river. To my dismay the stronger current was a little ways off the shore, but I followed my friend anyway. The whole way back, I could feel the tug and pull of the river which was taking me the right direction but gave me such high anxiety that I was sure I was going to drown. Thankfully, I made it back to the concrete platform without drowning, but I vowed never to swim in the Mekong River again.

Who talked me into this?

Besides that one adventure, life has been fairly tame around our house. Claire started school again which means we are once again navigating the cultural differences in education. The first week of school, Cameron attended a parent meeting at the school which unbeknownst to us was actually a “group” parent-teacher conference. I kid you not, the teachers stood up in front of the parents and one-by-one read off the student’s names and gave their assessment of how each child was doing in class. Some students got stellar reviews, others not so much. Claire was praised on the fact that she was doing much better than last year (which is basically “most improved”). These meetings are actually routinely held at every school in China and are something that most parents dread as they can be embarrassing for both parent and child. Whether or not Americans agree with this method, I will say that they are a very effective way to pressure children into working harder in class!

Since school started again, I have tried hard to keep up with Claire’s homework assignments, but I oftentimes can’t understand either the homework description which is posted online in Chinese characters or the teacher’s response when I ask her in person after class. Furthermore, half of their homework is writing numbers or writing basic Chinese character strokes inside these tiny boxes which are 1cm x 1cm. I was under the assumption that no 4 year old on earth could write a legible symbol inside a box that tiny, but I have witnessed with my own eyes that there are Chinese kids who have no trouble with this (see below). As for Claire, I am doing my own handwriting work with her and at this point her letters are about 12 inches tall, so asking her to write in a 1cm x 1cm square would be out of the question. Therefore, the only homework Claire does is math, which probably means we will be on the “naughty list” at the next group parent-teacher conference.

Another girl in Claire’s class doing homework

One other interesting aspect of the Chinese education experience is the online chat groups. Every class has its own chat group which includes the parents and the teachers. In some ways, it is helpful because the teacher posts information about homework, school activities, etc. Parents can also let the teacher know If their child is sick or if someone else will be picking up their child. In other ways, the chat groups are not so good. The parents spend a shocking amount of time asking the teacher an absurd amount of questions. Questions like “Did Little Susie eat all her vegetables?”, “Can you feel Jo’s forehead and tell me if he has a fever?”, or “Can you take a picture of Sally so I can what she is doing?” are irritating and only take away the teacher’s attention from the rest of the class. Admittedly, I am quite entertained by the online chat group because of the absurdity of some of the questions and comments.

Strike a pose

Lastly, I hosted a baby shower for a friend a couple weeks ago and wanted to share a few fun pictures. Throwing parties in China are truly a labor-of-love, but it is so fun when they come together!

Every time more than a month passes between posts, I regret it because there is so much to write about. We have been back in China for a month now, but I feel the need share some stories from February about the last part of our Thailand trip and the first week back home in China.

After we wrapped up the business side of our trip in northern Thailand, we traveled south to the beach and stayed there for a week and a half. The beach was relaxing as always, and our toughest decision each day was whether to start swimming at the beach or the pool. Claire is in the process of learning to swim so each day she wanted to practice in the pool without her floaties. I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack watching her. I honestly could not tell if she was drowning or swimming. Every time I would jump in the water to save her, she would pop up out of the water and scold me for not letting her do it on her own. I tried my best to wait a few moments before I intervened, but it just about killed me.

Since we aren’t traveling with infants anymore, Cameron and I have an increasing desire to do more adventurous activities in Thailand. And by adventurous, I mean something other than watching the kids swim. This time we decided to take the kids on a boat to Monkey Island which is a small island about a half mile off the coast from where we were staying. For some reason it has a large population of monkeys that crowd the beach waiting for tourists to come visit and hopefully feed them. To my relief and Claire’s disappointment, the monkeys kept a comfortable distance since they saw that we did not have any food to offer them. All in all, it was the perfect first adventure for our toddlers.

Claire trying to convince us to let her hold the monkeys.

I also had an adventure of my own, but not one that I anticipated. Now that we have traveled to Thailand a lot, we have a good idea of how much things should cost. This is good because we don’t get ripped off as easily, but it can also be a negative thing when we start to fret over something costing 200 baht ($6) vs 100 baht ($3). Anyways, I needed to get from our beach resort to the grocery store which was about a 20 minute drive away by car. The taxi service next door quoted me 600 baht ($18) round trip to the grocery store and back. I was disturbed that they would charge so much just to go to the grocery store and back, so I came up with the grand idea of taking a motorcycle with a side car attached for 450 baht ($13.50) instead, saving me a grand total of $4.50. Unfortunately, there were several factors I didn’t account for – the motorcycle had a manual transmission, the road there was all two lane highways, and I had no experience with driving something with gears or driving on the left side of the road. It took me an hour to get to the store which was unpleasant considering the heat, the wind, and the level of tension I felt driving under those circumstances. Thankfully, a friend was with me and we were able to laugh at our stupidity, but I think I will just pay the extra $4.50 next time.

Even though we had a great time at the beach, we all felt a strong desire to return to our life in China. At that point, we had been in the States and Thailand for almost 8 months. It was time to go home. After Thailand, it felt so good to finally return to our own space and routine. Even though there are many challenges to living here, my soul feels at peace being in a house that we can call our own no matter where that is. It also feels comforting knowing the kids actually enjoy being here. This was made evident by the many, many times in America and Thailand that Claire said she missed China and wanted to go back. It made me realize that Cameron and I are creating kids that are going to be vastly different from us. They already have a connection to China that Cameron and I will probably never have.

However, our return home wasn’t completely smooth. Having been gone so long, there was a lengthy list of things to repair around the house. The washing machine, in particular, was the most challenging. Our old washing machine bit the dust before we left for Thailand, so when we returned we immediately bought a new one. Unfortunately, when we were installing the new one we chose not to spend an hour or more translating the instruction manual which was all in Chinese characters, therefore, we missed the important detail about adjusting the bolts in the back of the machine to balance the drum inside. When we turned it on for for the first time, all was going well until the spin cycle started and the entire machine began jumping around the patio slamming into windows, the drying machine, and my own body as I tried to stop it from moving. We tried to level the machine ourselves knowing that our patio was somewhat slanted, but it continued to jump around on every spin cycle. I was so anxious to get our mountain of laundry down that I ran several loads by sitting or laying on top of it during the spin cycle. Finally, the entire drum tore off of its axis after being jostled around so much. At that point Cameron and I realized that we had broken a brand new washing machine. So, we used our “dumb foreigner” card and called Whirlpool who graciously had pity on us and fixed it for free.

Our growing collection of broken washing machines

Believe it or not, I have more stories to share from the last few weeks, but I will save those since this post is already getting long. It is a good problem to have when there are too many things to share!

Whew! It has been quite a whirlwind these past few weeks. We left the States after being there for six months, returned to China for five whole days, then packed our bags again to come to Thailand for a month. There have been tears and stress along the way, but overall the process has gone rather smoothly and the kids are handling things pretty well. Being in Thailand where the weather is always gorgeous in the winter certainly helps ease our transition!

Backing up some, leaving the States was just as difficult as when we left the first time five years ago. Saying good-bye is one aspect of living abroad that I loathe. It never gets easier. I have learned to give the sadness and tears plenty of freedom to express themselves during those last two weeks in the States. I have no other way of describing it, other than to say it’s brutal! Speaking of things that are brutal about living abroad, hauling our stuff and our kids back across the ocean is terrible as well. Imagine moving through multiple airports with 9 pieces of luggage, 3 rolling carry-ons, 3 back-packs, 2 car seats, and 1 stroller…oh, and 2 toddlers. You are probably wondering how that is even possible. It is possible, but I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. It causes major stress, marital strife, temper tantrums, and nervous breakdowns. The only hope I have during the process is knowing that it will end when we reach home (and Xanax for the flight anxiety).

Waiting for our luggage in the Beijing airport.

On a positive note, this time we discovered an amazing way of making things slightly easier. After we flew straight from Dallas to Beijing, we booked a hotel in Beijing which gave us a day of rest before we boarded our next two domestic flights in China to get home. During our day of rest in Beijing, we contacted a mailing service and arranged for them to come to the hotel, pick up most of our luggage, seal our luggage into boxes, then send it to our home in Southern China – all for a fraction of the cost that it would have been to take it on the plane with us. It was wonderful because we didn’t have to carry everything back to the Beijing airport, and the mailing service delivered it to our door within 3 days after we returned home. It was amazing! Figuring that out has given us a renewed pride in being expert travelers (nevermind the fact that expert travelers would not travel with 500+ pounds of luggage in the first place).

Arriving back at home in China was not as bad as we expected. Our house helper had cleaned our home so well that it was hard to tell that two people had been living in our house for six months. There were a handful of things that were broken like the washing machine, but we were not surprised by that since products are not made to last long in China. Based on my allergies, I could tell there was more mold in the house than normal (tropical climate problems), but after washing a lot of the clothes that we had left hanging in closets and folded in drawers, that problem was alleviated. And best of all, I got all the suitcases and things we had bought in the States put away in just a few days. Multiple people were trying to convince me to just worry about unpacking until after we got back from our current trip in Thailand, but the organizer in me just couldn’t resist but to get everything back in its place before we left again. All in all, we were amazed at how quickly we felt settled!

The kids’ ritual every time we return from a long trip – dumping out every toy they own

After a week in China, we headed to Thailand which is where we have been for the past week and a half. We started our trip here by sending off the paperwork to get new visas for China. We are slightly nervous about this since over the past year China has been passing new laws that have made obtaining a work visa more difficult for anyone other than the professional businessman. These rules have already impacted many of our friends. We are on a tourist visa, so we are not having as many issues getting a visa as our friends are, but we may have problems in the future. After visas, next on our list was medical appointments, my homeschool conference, and some work-related stuff this past week. I was excited to attend this conference because I was eager to learn all about this new homeschooling journey I am about to take! My conference ended this past weekend and next we have one more week-long meeting before we head to the beach for a little family vacation at the beginning of February.

Looking back at the last few weeks, I can’t believe all the packing and traveling we have done. Five years ago, I would have truly lost my mind at even the thought of it, but by the Father’s grace we are doing great and looking forward to a couple more weeks in Thailand!

We are loving spending the Christmas season with our families here in America. Below are some pictures from our holiday photo shoot. We will be heading back to China the first week of January, so you will hear more from us after that. Merry Christmas!